IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/streco/v46y2018icp107-125.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Sectoral mark-ups in U.S. Manufacturing

Author

Listed:
  • Puty, Cláudio Alberto Castelo Branco

Abstract

This study investigates the mark-up on average costs in the U.S. manufacturing industry at the aggregate and two-digit industry levels. We first analyze the behavior of profit margins over seven business cycles between 1958 and 1996 and establish some stylized facts for the cyclical dynamics of mark-ups. Second, we look at the secular movements in margins of profits through a simple trend decomposition of the aggregate and two-digit mark-ups. We find that: (1) the aggregate and the majority of two-digit mark-ups behave pro-cyclically; and (2) the trend in margins of profits in the period is explained by a marked rise in the rate of surplus value and a fall in the composition of capital, indicating labor-saving/capital- using technical change.

Suggested Citation

  • Puty, Cláudio Alberto Castelo Branco, 2018. "Sectoral mark-ups in U.S. Manufacturing," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 107-125.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:streco:v:46:y:2018:i:c:p:107-125
    DOI: 10.1016/j.strueco.2018.05.001
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0954349X17301248
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.strueco.2018.05.001?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ian Domowitz & R. Glenn Hubbard & Bruce C. Petersen, 1986. "Business Cycles and the Relationship Between Concentration and Price-Cost Margins," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 17(1), pages 1-17, Spring.
    2. Jordi Galí & Mark Gertler & J. David López-Salido, 2007. "Markups, Gaps, and the Welfare Costs of Business Fluctuations," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 89(1), pages 44-59, November.
    3. Marc Lavoie, 2014. "Post-Keynesian Economics: New Foundations," Post-Print hal-01343652, HAL.
    4. Weisskopf, Thomas E, 1979. "Marxian Crisis Theory and the Rate of Profit in the Postwar U.S. Economy," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 3(4), pages 341-378, December.
    5. Shaikh, Anwar, 2016. "Capitalism: Competition, Conflict, Crises," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199390632, Decembrie.
    6. Kaldor, Nicholas, 1972. "The Irrelevance of Equilibrium Economics," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 82(328), pages 1237-1255, December.
    7. Haskel, Jonathan & Martin, Christopher & Small, Ian, 1995. "Price, Marginal Cost and the Business Cycle," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 57(1), pages 25-41, February.
    8. Julio J. Rotemberg & Michael Woodford, 1991. "Markups and the Business Cycle," NBER Chapters, in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 1991, Volume 6, pages 63-140, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Bhaduri, Amit & Marglin, Stephen, 1990. "Unemployment and the Real Wage: The Economic Basis for Contesting Political Ideologies," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 14(4), pages 375-393, December.
    10. Godley, Wynne A H & Nordhaus, William D, 1972. "Pricing in the Trade Cycle," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 82(327), pages 853-882, September.
    11. R. L. Hall & C. J. Hitch, 1939. "Price Theory And Business Behaviour," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 0(1), pages 12-45.
    12. Amsden, Alice H, 1981. "An International Comparison of the Rate of Surplus Value in Manufacturing Industry," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 5(3), pages 229-249, September.
    13. Willi Semmler, 1981. "Competition, Monopoly, and Differentils of Profit Rates: Theoretical Considerations and Empirical Evidence," Review of Radical Political Economics, Union for Radical Political Economics, vol. 13(4), pages 39-52, December.
    14. Means, Gardiner C, 1972. "The Administered-Price Thesis Reconfirmed," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 62(3), pages 292-306, June.
    15. Morrison, C J, 1994. "The Cyclical Nature of Markups in Canadian Manufacturing: A Production Theory Approach," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 9(3), pages 269-282, July-Sept.
    16. R. F. Harrod, 1934. "Doctrines of Imperfect Competition," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 48(3), pages 442-470.
    17. Christopher J. Nekarda & Valerie A. Ramey, 2020. "The Cyclical Behavior of the Price‐Cost Markup," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 52(S2), pages 319-353, December.
    18. M. Kalecki, 1940. "The Supply Curve of an Industry under Imperfect Competition," Review of Economic Studies, Oxford University Press, vol. 7(2), pages 91-112.
    19. Robert E. Hall, 1986. "Market Structure and Macroeconomic Fluctuations," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 17(2), pages 285-338.
    20. Joan Robinson, 1934. "What is Perfect Competition?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 49(1), pages 104-120.
    21. Rotemberg, Julio J & Woodford, Michael, 1992. "Oligopolistic Pricing and the Effects of Aggregate Demand on Economic Activity," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 100(6), pages 1153-1207, December.
    22. Duncan K. Foley, 1982. "The Value of Money the Value of Labor Power and the Marxian Transformation Problem," Review of Radical Political Economics, Union for Radical Political Economics, vol. 14(2), pages 37-47, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Konopczak, Karolina, 2019. "Modelling cyclical variation in the cost pass-through: evidence from regime-dependent ARDL model," MF Working Papers 36, Ministry of Finance in Poland.
    2. Ian Small, 1997. "The cyclicality of Mark-ups and Profit Margins: Some Evidence for Manufacturing and Services," Bank of England working papers 72, Bank of England.
    3. Nlemfu Mukoko, Jean Blaise, 2015. "The Cyclical Behavior of the Markups in the New Keynesian Models," MPRA Paper 72478, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised May 2016.
    4. Salman Ahmad & Attiya Yasmin Javid, 2015. "Analysing the Price Cost Markup and Its Behaviour over the Business Cycles in Case of Manufacturing Industries of Pakistan," PIDE-Working Papers 2015:117, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics.
    5. Zhao Han & Xiaohan Ma & Ruoyun Mao, 2023. "The Role of Dispersed Information in Inflation and Inflation Expectations," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 48, pages 72-106, April.
    6. Andrea Vaona, 2016. "A nonparametric panel data approach to the cyclical dynamics of price-cost margins in the fourth Kondratieff wave," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 6(2), pages 155-170, August.
    7. Talukdar, Bidyut, 2017. "Learning-by-doing, organizational capital and optimal markup variations," The Journal of Economic Asymmetries, Elsevier, vol. 15(C), pages 39-47.
    8. Jaimovich, Nir, 2007. "Firm dynamics and markup variations: Implications for sunspot equilibria and endogenous economic fluctuations," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 137(1), pages 300-325, November.
    9. Santiago José Gahn & Alejandro González, 2022. "On the empirical content of the convergence debate: Cross‐country evidence on growth and capacity utilisation," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 73(3), pages 825-855, July.
    10. Christopher J. Nekarda & Valerie A. Ramey, 2020. "The Cyclical Behavior of the Price‐Cost Markup," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 52(S2), pages 319-353, December.
    11. Jaimovich, Nir & Floetotto, Max, 2008. "Firm dynamics, markup variations, and the business cycle," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(7), pages 1238-1252, October.
    12. Hu, Ruiyang & Yang, Yibai & Zheng, Zhijie, 2021. "Inflation, endogenous quality increment, and economic growth," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 72-86.
    13. Kephart, Curtis & Munro, David, 2023. "Market concentration and the responsiveness of prices and mark-ups," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 104(C).
    14. Botte, Florian & Dallery, Thomas, 2019. "Analyse systématique du modèle de Bhaduri et Marglin à prix flexibles : « Ça dépend de la valeur des paramètres » [Systematic analysis of the Bhaduri-Marglin Model with flexible prices: « It depend," Revue de la Régulation - Capitalisme, institutions, pouvoirs, Association Recherche et Régulation, vol. 26.
    15. Eric Kemp‐Benedict, 2020. "Convergence of actual, warranted, and natural growth rates in a Kaleckian–Harrodian‐classical model," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 71(4), pages 851-881, November.
    16. Jonathan F. Cogliano, 2017. "Surplus Value Production and Realization in Marxian Theory - Applications to the U.S., 1987-2015," Working Paper Series 2017-01, Dickinson College, Department of Economics.
    17. Pedro Dal Bó, 2007. "Tacit collusion under interest rate fluctuations," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 38(2), pages 533-540, June.
    18. Eckhard Hein, 2019. "Karl Marx: an early post-Keynesian? A comparison of Marx's economics with the contributions by Sraffa, Keynes, Kalecki and Minsky," European Journal of Economics and Economic Policies: Intervention, Edward Elgar Publishing, vol. 16(2), pages 238-259, September.
    19. M. Ali Choudhary, 2004. "Connecting People," School of Economics Discussion Papers 0404, School of Economics, University of Surrey.
    20. Henry Nieuwenhuijsen & Gerrit de Wit & Frank Hindriks, 2000. "Comparative advantages in estimating markups," Scales Research Reports H200003, EIM Business and Policy Research.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Mark-ups; Business cycles; Distribution; U.S. Manufacturing;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D40 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - General
    • E12 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General Aggregative Models - - - Keynes; Keynesian; Post-Keynesian; Modern Monetary Theory
    • E32 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Business Fluctuations; Cycles
    • L11 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Production, Pricing, and Market Structure; Size Distribution of Firms

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:streco:v:46:y:2018:i:c:p:107-125. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/525148 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.